I actually got Volumes 1-3 of the hardcover for my wife, as part of her birthday present - she loves the series!

I finally got my copy of Issue 8 (softback collection) yesterday and I'm now through reading it...

Boy, is this issue ... MEAN!
I won't spoil anything, but I was going WTF and OMG quite often.
It is genuinely horrifying.

So is this a book series or comic??

It's a comic book series.
More info, a cast of characters and a plot synopsis for all published issues (all this with SPOILERS!!) can be found .

I'll be the dissenting voice here. I checked the first two trades out of the library, yes our library had them, and I thought they were okay. I love anything to do with good zombie survival stories, but for some reason the series didn't really grab me. The plot felt forced, even I don't know what I mean by that, and stopped reading after the prison part. Maybe I'll revisit some day.

Joey

That might be because - strictly speaking - "The Walking Dead" isn't a zombie survival horror story. It's just a survival story where zombies just happen to be the cause of the breakdown. The comics are geared more towards character developement and offering a glimpse into their humanity and sanity rather than focusing on the human-zombie conflict.

Oh, and the prison part starts of a couple of very strong plot arcs, IMHO, so it is well worth to pick up and continue reading...

Finally got caught back with this as it had been forever! It's still as consistently great as ever!